Agitated kangaroo at Mike Epps’ show upsets audience members worried about animal

People are hopping mad at comedian Mike Epps, who appeared on stage with an apparently agitated kangaroo during a show Friday in Detroit.

Video taken by audience members show a handler holding the animal on a leash as Epps joked around and held onto the kangaroo’s leash while he danced. At one point it appeared the kangaroo punched at Epps, who took off running.

TMZ reports the handler also carried the animal around the stage when it looked like it tried to run off the stage. Several people in the audience were angry, TMZ reports, calling the incident animal abuse.

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Javon Stacks, the kangaroo’s handler, had a different story. He told TMZ the animal was not harmed and the harness it was wearing is preferable to a collar that could hurt it.

Stacks made news last week when a video showing him running with a leashed kangaroo through a Detroit neighborhood instigated an investigation by Detroit Animal Control and police, and concerns from the Michigan Humane Society.

According to MLive.com, the video generated hundreds of knee-jerk responses on social media where people assumed the kangaroo was stolen or owned by a “crackhead.”